"Mimosa is still a perfumer’s mainstay," says Sebastien Plan of Robertet, a major international supplier of the raw ingredients that go into perfumes. However, mimosa’s heady fragrance, which enjoyed a heyday from the 1950s through the ’70s, is used in tiny amounts today. Modern perfumes tend to be “subtler, with a good, clean and smooth” effect, says the expert.
An expansive old-fashion substance?
From a harvest of around 40 tonnes of flowers, Robertet produces some 400 kilos (880 pounds) of a rock-like substance called "concrete" - which is in turn purified into about 100 kilos of "absolute".
Eventually, the mimosa “absolute” proves costly for perfumers, who can opt for synthetic alternatives or can also buy cheaper Indian mimosa, which goes directly to Grasse in the form of "concrete".
Jean-Pierre Roux, the boss of the Grasse perfumery Galimard, pays tribute to this "symbol of the Grasse terroir" by distilling the flowers into a refreshing cologne, popular with visitors who come to see the mimosas in bloom.
Galimard’s perfumer Caroline de Boutiny admits that its mimosa scent is more popular with older customers than with the young. The strong mimosa absolute is little used in modern fragrances, but it can "lend weight to a composition with its honeyed and powdered notes", she said. Luxury perfume brands Kenzo and Guerlain use it for this quality in their toilet waters, de Boutiny said.
’Like velvet’
The mimosa tree arrived in France from Australia in the mid-19th century as a decorative plant for gardens and still forms a luxurious forest on the Tanneron hills west of Grasse.
"Mimosa is like velvet," says Gilbert Vial, an 85-year-old "mimosist" who has never left the town of Tanneron. This year, he said, the blossoms have only flowered for a brief period. To lengthen the season, local mimosa growers first plant the mirandole variety, which flowers in December and January, followed by the rustica and gaulois varieties, which bloom in February and March.
Yet the declining use of the flowers in the fragrance industry is being felt here. Vial’s 60-year-old son is the last in line to harvest the steep slopes of the family’s six hectares (15 acres). "Before the frost of 1956, thirty families grew mimosa in Tanneron. Today there are just three or four of us," he said.
Regarding the preservation and revival of the farming heritage of the Grass region, also read the article “Fragranges: the challengers” in our free special issue: Cosmetic Ingredients 2014. Contents: – Trends: Always greener ! – Organic, sustainable or Fair Trade. Which certification best suits cosmetic ingredients? – Interview: Patrice André, ethnobotanist – Fragranges: the challengers – New ingredients. |
